LMR

It's not often that an rock instrumental album blows me away like this one has.

In the prog world, Tony Levin is a legend. Among his countless credits is his work with so many of the giants. King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel and Yes (as ABWH), just scratches the surface of what he means to the genre. Jordan Rudess, of course, has been elevating Dream Theater's music for years with his keyboard pyrotechnics. And Marco Minnemann, while not as well known (yet), has been making his mark with the likes The Aristocrats, Mike Kenneally and some guy names Steven Wilson.

Together this trio has come up with an amazing array of heavy instrumental prog, where whether one listens to individual instrument parts, or the way they all come together, the music all leaves this listener in awe. They blend hard rock, metal, technical fusion and experimental rock to create a wall of prog bliss.

While I love the entire album, the track that stand out most to me are Twitch and Frumious Banderfunk, which both contain many unexpected twists and turns, and Mew, a track that sounds very much like a certain Mr. Zappa's wild Synclavier experiments.